Channel 7 To Leave Downtown Building in January

Bear in mind KATV’s long-delayed plan to maneuver from Fourth and Foremost streets downtown to Riverdale in Little Rock?

It’s lastly going to occur after the primary of the yr, Information Director Amy Sullivan confirmed to Whispers final week after Elicia Dover, host of Channel 7’s “Good Afternoon Arkansas,” talked about a January transfer date on her Fb web page.

“We’re bidding goodbye to 401 Foremost in January however honoring the outdated constructing with an hourlong particular,” Dover wrote, asking viewers to share recollections and photos from the station’s 53-year historical past there. The constructing was first devoted in 1928 because the headquarters of Worthen Financial institution and was designed by architect George R. Mann, recognized for his work on the state Capitol, amongst different Little Rock classics.

Sullivan didn’t need to launch particulars prematurely, however she mentioned the 22,000-SF website at 10 Turtle Creek Lane close to the Arkansas River will embrace a “cutting-edge” information studio that’s a transparent “improve from the place we at the moment are.”

The transfer to Riverdale, into the previous headquarters of the Arkansas Scholar Mortgage Assure Basis, has been within the works since 2019, however was delay by the COVID pandemic and in depth renovations, station supervisor Mark Rose instructed Arkansas Enterprise in 2020.

The 2-story Riverdale headquarters was in-built 2006 and bought by KATV for $4.4 million. It contains greater than 4 acres.

The Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate received metropolis permission to boost an present tower on the property from 75 to 100 ft, and can beam broadcast alerts to the Areas Financial institution constructing downtown, which is able to relay them to KATV’s tall transmitter on Shinall Mountain.

The station has indicated that 401 Foremost, which was added to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations in 1986, will go available on the market after the transfer.